Thursday, 9 February 2017

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives raided the home of Andrew Yakubu, former General Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in Kaduna city on Thursday.

The agents recovered $9.2 million from Mr. Yakubu's safe and an additional £72,000. The EFCC said it was the largest sum of cash the commission had recovered in recent weeks.

Mr. Yakubu was arraigned in June 2016 on allegations of money laundering.

He served as GMD of NNPC from 2012 to 2014 during the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Premium Times reported in 2014 that the embattled GMD was sacked after then Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke accused him of insubordination.

Nigeria may be on the verge of regaining its crude oil market share in the United States (U.S.) following President Donald Trump’s plan to build more infrastructural projects, The Nation has learnt.

Nigeria’s exports to the U.S. fell from 950,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2010 to 57,000 bpd in 2015.

Also, Angola suffered a decline in oil exports to U.S. as its exports fell from 484,000 bpd in 2009 to 124,000 bpd in 2015.

However, all that has been confined to past as Trump plans to build more infrastructure for oil and gas.

The former President, Association of International Energy Economist, Prof Adeola Akinnisiju, said if the plans materialise, it would open the door for production increase for Nigeria.

He said Nigeria, which once had the U.S. as the main customer for exports, may find new opportunities to reignite its upstream sector as past oil selling agreements between the two countries become attractive once again.

Akinnisiju said Nigeria was more likely to benefit from hypothetical unmet growing oil demand in the U.S. than Angola, adding that Angola had built stronger ties with China which is its main crude oil buyer in the recent years.

He said the past two years witnessed low oil prices for U.S. and other countries, noting that the development created room for a considerable stocking of oil.

Akinnisiju said: “For sometime now, members and non members of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have had difficult times, getting enough earnings from the sales of crude oil. The development made U.S. and other countries to stock their oil, with the hope of selling it when the price goes up. The time has come for such countries to sell their crude and mak more money from it.’’

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has said that private sector partnership in the agriculture sector remained vital for the country to attain food sufficiency.

Ogbeh disclosed this at the inaugural meeting of the Joint Sector Steering Committee (JSC), organised by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the agriculture ministry yesterday in Abuja.

He stated that it was imperative for the Federal Government to provide necessary infrastructure, control processes and oversight functions to support the private sector.

The minister, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shehu Ahmed emphasized that the ministry was responsible to partner with major stakeholders to develop effective policies that will create conducive environment for better private sector participation in the sector.

According to him, the JSR was to provide a platform to assess the performance and results of the agriculture sector and assist government to set sector policies and priorities.

Ogbeh said: “The present administration has been able to put together an agriculture promotion policy. The purpose of the policy document is to provide a disciplined approach to building an agribusiness ecosystem that will stem the tide of food importation through import substitution so as to earn significant foreign exchange from agriculture.

“The private sector will remain in the lead while government facilitates, regulates as well as provides supporting infrastructure, system, control processes and oversight.

“It assesses how well stakeholders implemented pledges and commitment cooperation agreements in the sector. This objective is however consistent with the policy thrust of the present administration on agriculture.”

They were charged with former National Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) and ex-Chairman of Kagarko Local Government of Kaduna State, Mr. Yusuf Danjuma and a company said to belong to him, Jointrust Dimentions Nigeria Limited.

EFCC arraigned them on a 17-count charge of laundering about N4.6billion. They pleaded not guilty.

Fani-Kayode, in his pending application, asked the judge to withdraw from the case because he was “worried and terrified” he would not get a fair hearing from Justice Hassan.

He asked the judge to decline jurisdiction and transfer the case to the court’s Abuja division, adding that Justice Hassan, who worked as a prosecutor at the Federal Ministry of Justice and later seconded to the EFCC, signed the charge for which he was previously tried and acquitted by Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumobia for money laundering

Usman, in her applications, is praying the court to allow her to be tried separately from Fani-Kayode and for her trial to be transferred from Lagos to Abuja for convenience.

According to him, since it was a matter of life and death, the judge could hear it before other applications.

Besides, he said the judge, having granted the former minister of state bail, was allowed by law to vary the bail terms, including permitting her to travel abroad.

“If she collapses here now, will this case go on? She has undergone surgery and has had a relapse. Doctors at the National Hospital have recommended that she needs to get urgent medical treatment abroad.

“This is a matter as serious as breast cancer. We are all humans and can fall sick,” he said.

But, EFCC’s lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo, said Usman’s application for leave to travel cannot be heard when there were pending applications challenging the court’s jurisdiction.

He said the issue of jurisdiction ought to be determined first before all other applications could be heard.

“If they want this application (for leave to travel) to be heard, then they should withdraw the application challenging the court’s jurisdiction,” he said.

Justice Hassan held that since the defendants have applications on jurisdiction with regards to where they should be tried, as well as on fair hearing, those applications ought to be determined first.

“The law is clear. The court is obliged to determine the issue of jurisdiction first. I am inclined to take the applications challenging the competence of this court to entertain the case first,” he said.

The judge directed the defence to move the pending applications.

But, Fani-Kayode’s lawyer Mr. Norrison Quakers (SAN) said EFCC served him with the prosecution’s counter-affidavit three days ago.

He said he needed time to reply on points of law.

Justice Hassan adjourned till March 1 for hearing in all pending applications.

The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, on Thursday said the commission recovered N102,913,791,217.54, $8,296,313.99, GBP 29,155, £12,475, 117,004 Canadian Dollar, 806.50 Dirham, 5,000 Francs and 2,000 Rupee as proceeds of crime between January and December 2016.

Magu, who appeared before the Hon. Kayode Oladele-led House Committee on Financial Crimes, also confirmed the recovery of $9.750 million and £750,000 from a residence in Kaduna recently, adding that N1.25 billion was recovered from a public servant a fortnight ago.

The EFCC chief was in the House of Representatives for 2016 budget appraisal and 2017 budget defence.

According to a document submitted by Magu to the committee, out of the 37 accounts frozen/forfeited, six banks are yet to provide relevant information on the amount accrued into the suspected accounts during the period under review.

The commission, according to him, secured 135 convictions last year.

He said 46 of the convictions were from Lagos zone, 30 from Abuja, 22 from Port Harcourt, 19 from Kano, 15 from Enugu, and three from Gombe.